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Bruce Arians sat at the interview table next to his new offensive coordinator, Harold Goodwin, and was asked — bluntly — what they were going to be able to do so that the Cardinals didn’t have the “worst” offense in the NFL, after the team was last statistically in 2012.

“There’s nowhere to go but up,” Arians said with a smile, cracking Goodwin up next to him and drawing laughs from the media. “I guarantee we won’t be there this year.”

There were a few smiles between the two of them Wednesday as Goodwin, 39, got to be a coordinator in public for the first time. The one-time college offensive lineman at the University of Michigan (he played there with Cardinals kicker Jay Feely) has a background in offensive line and was the offensive line coach for the Colts last season. That will remain important in his role. Arians emphasized there will be a “group of people” teaching blocking on the Cardinals, including Goodwin, assistant head coach Tom Moore, assistant offensive line coach Larry Zierlein, tight ends coach Rick Christophel and assistant tight ends coach Steve Heiden.

Goodwin will indeed be the coordinator of the offense, however. Arians said that too, noting that while Arians will call plays, Goodwin will work all the other normal coordinator duties.

— Goodwin and Arians didn’t get super specific on the offensive linemen, although Goodwin mentioned Levi Brown and Nate Potter in passing and said he thinks the group has some talent. He wouldn’t speculate why the unit would have been so poor last season. Said Arians about the line, “We’re not far off.” Injuries were a factor, both of them said.

— There were a couple of jokes about how intense Goodwin can be. If it gets emotional it will be a change for the offensive linemen. Russ Grimm saw his players through the “they are professionals and know what they need to do” lens.

— Arians opened the presser before anyone could ask about the quarterbacks by talking about the quarterbacks. “Nothing has changed on my comments on quarterbacks since the last time we talked,” Arians said, adding, “the quarterback situation will take some time.”

A full story coming later on azcardinals.com. Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles is set to meet with the media tomorrow, with Moore and special teams coordinator Amos Jones coming on Friday.

As I’ve said a few times, we should not expect the Cards to play in the Super Bowl next year (or even make the playoffs).
It will take Keim, BA and his coaching staff a couple of years to change the roster to compete with the NFC West and other NFL teams.
Do I want them to win the Super Bowl next year? Of course.
However, they are not miracle workers.

I already have a sense that this new coaching crew has a much less ‘buttoned-down’ approach than the previous one.and in my opinion, a welcomed change. A little spontaneity is good for the team AND the press corp. covering them. I feel positive about this coach and his staff …………. @Mike & @D noticed you both began your sentences with the word “hopefully” – that’s a sign that there is no shortage of “hope” here among Cardinal fans – let’s ‘hope’ we never lose it.

This team has the pieces to be contenders. All we need are the coaches to back them up and I believe Bruce Arians added some fine coaches to this staff.
My Favorites: WR:Darryl Drake, LB:Mike Caldwell, O:Tom Moore, PR: Tom Pratt
-Drake probably is one of the luckiest assistant coaches ever working with Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Roberts, and Michael Floyd. Mike Caldwell transformed the Eagles defense into one of the Dynamic defenses in the NFL and with him and Tom Pratt; Daryl Washington, Sam Acho and O’Brien Schofield will much better improved with them being good already. Tom Moore is one of the best offensive minded coaches in NFL history and I see him tutoring Kevin Kolb into becoming one of he better QBs in the league.
Decent Coaches hired: OC Harold Goodwin, OA Kevin Garver, OLA: Larry Zierlein, RB Stump Mitchell, ST Amos Jones, TEA Steve Heiden, Nick Rapone
-I know Harold Goodwin loves the pieces of OL that are already in place. With Zerlein also here too, our OL shall be much better than the past 3 years by a lot. Amos Jones is more of a dynamic coach than Kevin Spencer was so I see LaRod Stephens-Howling being a much better player. Mitchell and Heiden will be the key pieces to this teams successes. With RB Beanie Wells and TE Rob Housler, they will be more dynamic and be back to their Pro Bowl caliber ways.
The other coaches are okay, but we could have done much better on selecting a better defensive coordinator, tight ends coach, and OLB coach.

“Russ Grimm saw his players through the “they are professionals and know what they need to do” lens.”

That statement pretty much sums up for me the reason the O-line has been such a failure the past few years. Sure, in an ideal world that colored lens/attitude would work, but when you’re coaching rich kids and men who are really there to get paid as much as they can to do as little as they can before ownership realizes they’ve been had, that attitude about “professionals” allows the players to take advantage of their coaches who believe in it.

Whiz and Grimm were players’ coaches. In the end, the players didn’t fulfill their end of the deal and Whiz didn’t see fit to start holding many of them accountable until Whiz knew his job was toast, and by that time, it was too late. This wasn’t the sole source of the Cardinal’s struggles last year, but I certainly don’t get the feeling that any of the players on this roster are going to be able to take advantage of their coaches and slide by with doing the minimum. They will be held accountable, or else they will sit or be released. And it’s hard to get any good film for your next job interview if your sitting on the bench, Beanie (cough, cough).

Darren:
Just watched the Cardinals Underground Podcasts. From someone who reads virtually everything posted on this site, fwiw, I just want to compliment you four on an outstanding job. It is my favorite media on the site. Well done to all. The in depth commentary, insights and analysis supported by the involvement and research you guys do, all four of you, is as good as it gets for an AZ Cardinals football season ticket holder and fan. Please pass it on if given the opportunity.
DTL

Finally some new blood. I feel better already. But talk is cheap. Production is what counts. In Arians We Trust. At least for now. I’m extremely hopeful Arians can get things turned around. He did a great job in Indianapolis and I am expecting the same here. Niners lost a superbowl “hell yeah” now its time for the Cards to rise up again. Look out NFC West. Here we come.

We all know how many key players were lost to injury last season. My question is, have you read any articles stating the number of starters and total number of players each team lost throughout last season? Maybe I missed any articles written on the subject? Any chance you could do an article on the top 5 teams who lost the most players and the how much it may have hurt each team? Thx.

The only stat I have is that there were 103 total man-games missed by 17 Cardinals offensive players last season. Injuries are a factor, yes, but every team is faced with the same possibility every year.

I am very pleased with the actions Mr Bidwell did for the team and most certainly the fans when he replaced Whiz In Fake and his so called coaching staff with high caliber coaches we now have. I for one am very excited about the upcoming draft and free agent signings and the start of football this fall! BA will breathe new life and hope and desire into the players. I will be looking forward to attending the games (we fly from Oregon) sitting in our club seats section 240 row one! I do feel sorry however for the chargers oh well you get our garbage and we get renewed hope! GO CARDS!!

The message board is up in arms over a story that claims the cards could rollover 5 million in salary cap last year and didn’t. Is there any truth to this? If so, why are we paying good hard earned money on tickets, merchandise etc. if the team isn’t using its available resources to bring in talent. The story is on PFT about the eagles rolling over 23 million and the cards not rolling over 5.

I hope that they can do something with the line. It concerns me that Goodwin and Zierlein were the OL coaches for the 31st and 25th best O-lines in the NFL last year, according to ProFootballFocus (Cards were #32). Whatever they were “teaching” their guys in Indy and Pittsburgh didn’t seem to help very much.

As I read you article, one thing keeps popping up in my mind. Maybe Goodwin is a good coach and a great offensive mind. But, unless he has some new offense like Walsh and the West Coast offense, it won’t matter.
(dont give me the history of the WCO, Walsh perfected it)

Ken Whisenhunt knew offense and was quickly grabbed up as an OC. The coaching wasn’t the issue.

Players are and will always be the issue. If you don’t have the right players, you can’t win. Look at Billecheck with the Browns, then the Patriots. Did he just suddenly become a great coach? No, he drafted well and got lucky with a kid named Brady.

On the other hand, Whisenhunt came to a loser team and went 8-8, then 2 years to the playoffs and a superbowl. Did he just lose his coaching edge? No, he promoted Warner and then lost Warner with no replacement.

Another example, Jim Caldwell wore out his welcome in Indy and was brought into the Ravens and replaced Cam Cameron and became the guy who got Flacco on track to win the SB. Funny, because he couldn’t coach up any of the guys who tried in Indy when Peyton missed 2011. Was it him or the QBs?

Sure, coaches make a difference and can fit schemes to the players and make them better. But if you don’t have players, you don’t win. The player you need most is a QB. You just can’t win without one. We don’t have one. I am not going to buy in to the fact that Coach Whiz couldn’t coach these guys up. I just don’t buy it.

So, if you want Mr Goodwin to keep smiling, get him a new QB to work with. Otherwise, you will hear the fans yelling Goodwin sucks.

One last point, Grimm took a lot of heat. and I have made this point before. Grimm wasnt given players to coach but he coached them up well enough when Warner was here. But with little talent on the oline and bad QBs, he took the heat. Funny, when the cards finally decided to draft olineman, Grimm coached them up and made two rookie tackles pretty good by the end of the year even with no RBs and terrible QBs.

I think there are always multiple issues that go into firing a coach. And for the head coach, it’s not always just about his actual coaching. That guy is wearing a lot of hats, making a lot of decisions.

Yes. Without knowing for sure, it seemed Coach Whisenhunt’s downfall was the wearing of too many hats. His decisions on personnel, especially QB, made what he does best (coaching) impossible.

I’m sure Goodwin knows his stuff or he wouldn’t be there. I also believe a new perspective is good from time to time. I supported the firings because I thought it had gotten a little out of whack and needed someone to look at it with a new perspective.

I just hope these coaches understand the men before them knew this game and lost because of players. I hope they don’t think they can fix the issues with our QBs without realizing the guys here before knew QBs.

Get new QBs, add talent through the draft, and don’t miss on FAs (yours or others you bring in). If you don’t do these things, it won’t matter how good of a coach you are, you will lose.

Agree with John and Darren about it being about the players, as Shannon Sharpe once noted, you can’t win the Kentucky Derby riding a jackass.

However, I do think it’s a bit of a cop out to place it all on the players. Whisenhunt, at some point, had to see he didn’t have the horses to continue on with his vertical passing game once Warner retired. He continually made the player fit his system, even when it was clear they didn’t. I hate to make this comparison, as it’s coming from a Whisenhunt fan, but look at the change in Alex Smith when Harbaugh replaced Singletary. Same player, vastly different result. Granted, it didn’t stop him from handing the keys to Kaepernick but now Smith is actually in demand around the league. It’s all hindsight now, but I still would have liked to have seen what our offense would have looked like with Iupati and DeCastro at Guards, and Beanie given the designation as the #1 back.

i liked whiz also,but there was never any big picture vision,no quality backup qb,always behind in o line devolpment,and if our defense was this capable,what took so long for coaching to bring it out,the whole season of play calling sucked,we did’nt play to our qb’s strength nor dockets,it was pretty helter skelter,maybe not all whiz’s fault,but he should have been more adamant about the team he was coaching,demanding quality help at strategic positions instead of always trying to coach them up,that only goes so far when you are up against more seasoned or better players.
only hope new staff demands upgrades where the deem necessary,maybe more than just one door #2.if we need helpin the middle,get a run stuffer,same with olb and more help opposite patrick,maybe a real burner for extreme vertical play,lots of places to improve,exciting times coming,lots of new presents,lol.